My summer school class went great, not quite as planned but great. We had requested that the class be of kids between the ages of 10 and 15. However the day before my host sister asked if my little niece could come. She is 5, I couldn’t say no, so I agreed. But as we left our house, the kids just started following, none of which were ten years old. And by the time we reached the school, we had about 10 kids behind us. I wasn’t going to turn anyone down. So to my disappointment, the man who was supposed to come and open up a classroom for me didn’t show up. So we had to have class outside which didn’t 
bother me and ended up working out okay. About 15 kids came in total. It was a little awkward at first for the kids to understand us and warm up to us. First we had them make pretty name tags, because sometimes they can tell me their names 100 times and I still don’t understand. Then, we had them make community maps. It was actually to benefit us, because it’s a project the peace corps wants us to complete for our diagnostic. So we threw that in there. Afterwards I took pictures of each kid, because in a few weeks they are going to make picture frames. They didn’t seemed thrilled with anything. So I wanted to make sure that we sent them home happy, so we tried to play tag.
Just in case anyone who is new to Spanish wants to teach kids how to play tag….not the best idea….and didn’t go over well! They all just kept running and touching each other. No one was out or froze or anything. No one was it….it made no sense. Fortunately they didn’t seem to mind but BJ and I were so confused. So then we had them play duck duck goose. That they understood and really seemed to like. It was really
cute. Then I gave them each a piece of candy and sent them home. However, now I’m a little nervous that word is getting out about the class and I’m afraid next Tuesday I am going to have a ton of kids. So I hope it goes as well.
So Thursday my host Mom, sister and nephew came home from Lima. They have been gone for several weeks. They went to take care of their sick uncle. Well, they returned with the sick uncle and my host mother’s mom…so my host grandmother. She is from the jungle. The uncle is dying. He has a metal plate in his head, and cancer and he is also blind. Many of my family members here have not seen him in years, so as he came into the house they were all crying. However….within 20 minutes or so, they were congregated outside of my room in the little sitting area complaining how they didn’t like him anymore. They said all he does is yell at everyone, and that he is mean. It made me laugh. I have many years of experience working with people just like the uncle, so I know grumpy old men well. Today at lunch he told me that all Americans do is run Latinos out of our country. Although he is half right, my host Mom jumped in and said that I don’t understand Spanish so he shouldn’t talk to me, then she winked at me. I thought that was really funny. I guess she is protecting me from all future arguments. And then he preceded to tell my host Mom that her food tastes like dog shit. He has been told he has 3 months left to live and I have a feeling these are going to be some of the most interesting 3 months of my life in Peru.
So yesterday, BJ and I went into our district capital. It’s called Las Lomas, and it’s about a 30-45 minute drive up and out of our valley. We needed to meet with the new mayor to arrange a meeting with our regional director in a few weeks, plus, we just needed to introduce ourselves. But, first, we had to find an internet café to print a few things off to give him when we went. I had no clue how difficult that was going to be. Literally every time I logged into the computer the electricity would go out. EVERY TIME. Not for just a little while, it would be an hour or more at a time. The first time it happened we went in sat in the park and waiting, people watched, second time we left and went to the market. My family asked me to buy things I’d like them to cook, so I bought tons of vegetables, and nail polish to paint the girls nails when I got back. The third time the electricity went out, we went and got lunch.
We found a little chicken place to get lunch, fortunately everyone cooks with gas, so no electricity doesn’t effect that. However, the entire time we ate, there was this group of men who wouldn’t stop staring at me. It is so creepy and so weird. I’d really like to know what they think that is going to do. Like do they think I am going to stand up and take my clothes off and confess my love for them? Like I don’t get it. Not only that, but I’m having lunch with a guy. They don’t know my relationship with him. But I guess it’s obvious that all 4 of them did not care.
After lunch, we finally were able to print our stuff and we headed over to the mayors office to meet with him. One thing I never expected when I came here was the instant celebrity status that comes with simply being a white person….never mind a white American. We went into the mayors office and were ushered around by the people who work for him fascinated by us, and then we were able to sit down and have a 45 minute meeting with the mayor. Most Peruvians would be very jealous of how easy we were able to do that without even having an appointment. We familiarized him with Peace Corps, fortunately he was familiar with the pervious volunteers. However, he seemed much more interested in supporting us if first I find him a permanent doctor for my town (all of our doctors are doing their residency and only stay here for a few months) and he’d like it if they had a specialty, like a pediatrician. He repeated this multiple times, and it sort of scares me because that is completely out of my realm and has nothing to do with my job. But I’ll wait for my regional director to come and explain that to him further.
Afterwards, we had told BJ’s host Dad that we would meet him at 2:00 to ride back home with him. However it was way after 2:00 so we just hopped in a taxi and were planning on going without him. Well just as we are about to go he pops out of nowhere and tells us to get out and take another one with him. As we were talking to him, I see his eyes are blood shot and he wreaks of alcohol. This meant he was going to be very entertaining for us and he definitely lived up to the part. First, he told us to wait in the bus terminal, and he kept coming back and forth giving us little hand signals to wait. And then he said his wife was coming, we weren’t sure whether or not to believe that, but eventually she showed up. In the mean time we are watching many taxi’s come and go and he tells us not to ride with them. We are confused. Finally he comes back with a taxi and the 4 of us get in with the taxi driver. It all seemed normal at first. But as soon as we turned onto the dirt road leading into the valley the driver started going crazy. I think he thought he was a NASCAR driver. And then BJ’s Dad scooted himself over, practically in the same seat as the driver and they were joking and laughing the whole time. They are obviously friends, and I think that maybe that had been drinking together before this ride home. BJ’s dad kept grabbing the guys hand and kissing it and stuff. It was weird. But at the same time hilarious. I was in the middle of the back seat between BJ and his host Mom and we were all hanging onto the seats for our lives. I have never driven that fast on those roads. I was scared! And as we flew through some of the smaller towns people were just sitting outside their houses staring and probably thinking “WHAT THE HELL”. It was definitely the most interesting and fastest ride I have had home in ever.
So today, I found out that there is a lot of talk about this uncle who is living with me around town. There are apparently two witches in town. One who is more of a witch then the other. She even has the heads of a man and woman hanging in her house, and arms too. I asked my family where she got them, and they said she went to the cemetery and cut them off the corpses there. I am pretty sure in the US that doing something like that is a MAJOR crime….and just simply crazy!! They told me that she makes stews and stuff with frogs and everything. But she doesn’t look like the witches from Halloween she looks normal. But they said that the people that usually go to see her die, instead of get better. Why does that not surprise me?!?! So anyway, this witch believes she can help the uncle, and the uncle wants to see her. Fortunately my family thinks it is a crazy idea. I am very glad to hear they think this, especially because I am on the fence a lot with their crazy ideas, because they are often crazy.
So tomorrow my host sisters want to die my hair black. I don’t know where they got this crazy idea but they won’t leave me alone about it. I have never ever died my hair, and I’m scared to death. But it’s temporary, and they are really pressuring me. I think they want me to look more like them. So I am going to let them do it. Wish me luck!!!
bother me and ended up working out okay. About 15 kids came in total. It was a little awkward at first for the kids to understand us and warm up to us. First we had them make pretty name tags, because sometimes they can tell me their names 100 times and I still don’t understand. Then, we had them make community maps. It was actually to benefit us, because it’s a project the peace corps wants us to complete for our diagnostic. So we threw that in there. Afterwards I took pictures of each kid, because in a few weeks they are going to make picture frames. They didn’t seemed thrilled with anything. So I wanted to make sure that we sent them home happy, so we tried to play tag.Just in case anyone who is new to Spanish wants to teach kids how to play tag….not the best idea….and didn’t go over well! They all just kept running and touching each other. No one was out or froze or anything. No one was it….it made no sense. Fortunately they didn’t seem to mind but BJ and I were so confused. So then we had them play duck duck goose. That they understood and really seemed to like. It was really
cute. Then I gave them each a piece of candy and sent them home. However, now I’m a little nervous that word is getting out about the class and I’m afraid next Tuesday I am going to have a ton of kids. So I hope it goes as well.So Thursday my host Mom, sister and nephew came home from Lima. They have been gone for several weeks. They went to take care of their sick uncle. Well, they returned with the sick uncle and my host mother’s mom…so my host grandmother. She is from the jungle. The uncle is dying. He has a metal plate in his head, and cancer and he is also blind. Many of my family members here have not seen him in years, so as he came into the house they were all crying. However….within 20 minutes or so, they were congregated outside of my room in the little sitting area complaining how they didn’t like him anymore. They said all he does is yell at everyone, and that he is mean. It made me laugh. I have many years of experience working with people just like the uncle, so I know grumpy old men well. Today at lunch he told me that all Americans do is run Latinos out of our country. Although he is half right, my host Mom jumped in and said that I don’t understand Spanish so he shouldn’t talk to me, then she winked at me. I thought that was really funny. I guess she is protecting me from all future arguments. And then he preceded to tell my host Mom that her food tastes like dog shit. He has been told he has 3 months left to live and I have a feeling these are going to be some of the most interesting 3 months of my life in Peru.
So yesterday, BJ and I went into our district capital. It’s called Las Lomas, and it’s about a 30-45 minute drive up and out of our valley. We needed to meet with the new mayor to arrange a meeting with our regional director in a few weeks, plus, we just needed to introduce ourselves. But, first, we had to find an internet café to print a few things off to give him when we went. I had no clue how difficult that was going to be. Literally every time I logged into the computer the electricity would go out. EVERY TIME. Not for just a little while, it would be an hour or more at a time. The first time it happened we went in sat in the park and waiting, people watched, second time we left and went to the market. My family asked me to buy things I’d like them to cook, so I bought tons of vegetables, and nail polish to paint the girls nails when I got back. The third time the electricity went out, we went and got lunch.
We found a little chicken place to get lunch, fortunately everyone cooks with gas, so no electricity doesn’t effect that. However, the entire time we ate, there was this group of men who wouldn’t stop staring at me. It is so creepy and so weird. I’d really like to know what they think that is going to do. Like do they think I am going to stand up and take my clothes off and confess my love for them? Like I don’t get it. Not only that, but I’m having lunch with a guy. They don’t know my relationship with him. But I guess it’s obvious that all 4 of them did not care.
After lunch, we finally were able to print our stuff and we headed over to the mayors office to meet with him. One thing I never expected when I came here was the instant celebrity status that comes with simply being a white person….never mind a white American. We went into the mayors office and were ushered around by the people who work for him fascinated by us, and then we were able to sit down and have a 45 minute meeting with the mayor. Most Peruvians would be very jealous of how easy we were able to do that without even having an appointment. We familiarized him with Peace Corps, fortunately he was familiar with the pervious volunteers. However, he seemed much more interested in supporting us if first I find him a permanent doctor for my town (all of our doctors are doing their residency and only stay here for a few months) and he’d like it if they had a specialty, like a pediatrician. He repeated this multiple times, and it sort of scares me because that is completely out of my realm and has nothing to do with my job. But I’ll wait for my regional director to come and explain that to him further.
Afterwards, we had told BJ’s host Dad that we would meet him at 2:00 to ride back home with him. However it was way after 2:00 so we just hopped in a taxi and were planning on going without him. Well just as we are about to go he pops out of nowhere and tells us to get out and take another one with him. As we were talking to him, I see his eyes are blood shot and he wreaks of alcohol. This meant he was going to be very entertaining for us and he definitely lived up to the part. First, he told us to wait in the bus terminal, and he kept coming back and forth giving us little hand signals to wait. And then he said his wife was coming, we weren’t sure whether or not to believe that, but eventually she showed up. In the mean time we are watching many taxi’s come and go and he tells us not to ride with them. We are confused. Finally he comes back with a taxi and the 4 of us get in with the taxi driver. It all seemed normal at first. But as soon as we turned onto the dirt road leading into the valley the driver started going crazy. I think he thought he was a NASCAR driver. And then BJ’s Dad scooted himself over, practically in the same seat as the driver and they were joking and laughing the whole time. They are obviously friends, and I think that maybe that had been drinking together before this ride home. BJ’s dad kept grabbing the guys hand and kissing it and stuff. It was weird. But at the same time hilarious. I was in the middle of the back seat between BJ and his host Mom and we were all hanging onto the seats for our lives. I have never driven that fast on those roads. I was scared! And as we flew through some of the smaller towns people were just sitting outside their houses staring and probably thinking “WHAT THE HELL”. It was definitely the most interesting and fastest ride I have had home in ever.
So today, I found out that there is a lot of talk about this uncle who is living with me around town. There are apparently two witches in town. One who is more of a witch then the other. She even has the heads of a man and woman hanging in her house, and arms too. I asked my family where she got them, and they said she went to the cemetery and cut them off the corpses there. I am pretty sure in the US that doing something like that is a MAJOR crime….and just simply crazy!! They told me that she makes stews and stuff with frogs and everything. But she doesn’t look like the witches from Halloween she looks normal. But they said that the people that usually go to see her die, instead of get better. Why does that not surprise me?!?! So anyway, this witch believes she can help the uncle, and the uncle wants to see her. Fortunately my family thinks it is a crazy idea. I am very glad to hear they think this, especially because I am on the fence a lot with their crazy ideas, because they are often crazy.
So tomorrow my host sisters want to die my hair black. I don’t know where they got this crazy idea but they won’t leave me alone about it. I have never ever died my hair, and I’m scared to death. But it’s temporary, and they are really pressuring me. I think they want me to look more like them. So I am going to let them do it. Wish me luck!!!
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